20 Christmas Facts According to rumor, “Silent Night” was originally written in 1816 for the guitar because the local church’s piano was broken. The National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony was started in 1923 by President Calvin Coolidge. In 1963, the National Christmas Tree was not lit until Dec 22 in honor of a 30-day mourning period for President Kennedy. Santa Claus wasn’t portrayed as human-sized until Coca-Cola did in 1931. Before that, he had been shown as an elf. How did Christmas get abbreviated to Xmas? The first letter of Christ in Greek is chi, which is portrayed as an “X.” Oregon, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and California are the top Christmas tree producing states. The Christmas tree industry employs more than 100,000 people each year in the U.S. The temperature in the North Pole almost never rises above freezing. The first company to make Christmas tree lights was Edison General Electric Co. SantaCon is an event where large numbers o...
FOLKLORE, FACTS AND FEATURES ABOUT HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS AROUND THE WORLD